Frosty reception for education minister

THE Tánaiste and Minister for Education, Mary Coughlan was jostled by anti-Nama protestors as she left the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) annual congress in the West County Hotel in Ennis on Wednesday.
Protestors tried to block her exit, while another man attending the congress donned a George Bush mask during part of her address to the delegates.
However, her speech to the teachers and lecturers was greeted with tension and silence, as she once again warned of further possible cutbacks to keep Government expenditure down during the continuing economic recession. Her speech was not interrupted by delegates but she did not receive applause before or after her address.
The TUI last week voted unanimously to reject the deal aimed at ending the public pay dispute.
Addressing the TUI members from around the country, she said that the Government is undertaking a “hugely challenging task in righting Ireland’s course to ultimately provide jobs, opportunity and a future for students”.
“In the process, we have had to take some difficult and unpopular decisions so that we could deal with the fall in tax revenue and stabilise the public finances. At the same time, we have had to develop and implement a strategy to ensure that we repair the banking system, not just to get it working again but to ensure that the tragedy of what did happen in domestic Irish banking can never be repeated,” she declared.
“The availability of credit for sound business proposals is the life blood of any enterprise economy and is key to job creation. While it galls me, just as it does you, to be providing such significant amounts of capital to banks that made irresponsible lending decisions, it is the case that without a stable domestic banking sector providing credit, our economy would not have the capacity to recover. Without a recovery and the return of Ireland to a path of sustainable economic growth, we would be without the means to finance public services and invest in the maintenance and development of frontline provision, such as education, health and welfare,” the minister commented.
The newly appointed education minister highlighted that the choosing of a path to economic recovery means that more still has to be done to narrow the divide between levels of income and expenditure. “It will take further difficult decisions,” she said.
“A further €3 billion of adjustments will be required in the next budget. €1bn of this is likely to come from capital expenditure and the remaining €2bn will have to be achieved through reductions in the cost of public services and through taxation.
“The reality is that there will be less money available for public services into the medium term. For me to indicate, or for us to plan otherwise would be to deny the facts. The challenge, therefore, becomes very difficult, it becomes about achieving more with less.”
She acknowledged that some of the decisions the Government had to take over the past year “created anxiety” and “difficulty” for many of the TUI members.
“People are understandably angry and find certain decisions hard to accept. Nobody wants to see less coming home in his or her pay packet at the end of the month. In response, I can only ask that you believe me when I say that in taking those decisions, we were guided at all times by the national interest and the need to ensure we can sustain public services into the future,” the minister commented.
She gave a small ray of hope to delegates in relation to the moratorium on recruitment and promotion across the public service. “While it is part of the adjustments necessary in relation to the cost of the public sector, I understand that is of little comfort when remaining staff are under pressure or have to suppress legitimately held aspirations of promotion. Middle management positions in schools are a case in point. I should say that I am conscious that the impact of the moratorium on these posts has applied unevenly in schools, depending on the level of retirements. I would therefore like to give some comfort to those members in schools where there is an acute problem that I am going to look at how some limited alleviation of the position might be applied for the next school year.”
The minister also spoke about the role of the further education sector in training people for employment or re-employment.
“It is particularly important that we target that training in such a way to ensure that our labour force is ready for jobs in sectors primed for future growth that will result in new employment opportunities in Ireland. Over past years, your members both in schools and colleges within the VEC system in particular, and in the institutes of technology, have demonstrated a capacity to adapt and respond with programme innovation and development that met the needs of learners. A notable strength of the VEC system has been its capacity to provide atypical provision and address the needs of those learners that others did not readily cater for.”
She continued, “The further education has a significant role to play in this regard. In 2010, about 48,000 learners will benefit from full-time further education opportunities. These programmes are designed to enhance participants’ employability and some are specifically targeted at the unemployed. Some 125,000 learners will participate in part-time learning programmes designed mainly for the low-skilled and disadvantaged, including the unemployed.”
Minister Coughlan added that the Government is keen to encourage the development of innovative new programmes and initiatives to assist priority cohorts back into employment.
“I recently announced a call for proposals under the €20 million Labour Market Activation Fund. The fund is aimed at delivering substantial training and education programmes that target specific groups among the unemployed. The priority groups include the low-skilled and those formerly employed in declining sectors, such as construction, retail and manufacturing, with particular emphasis on the under-35s and the long-term unemployed. Through this fund, additional jobseekers with low levels of education will be enabled to gain qualifications that bring them to at least Leaving Certificate level. It will also provide additional opportunities for those with skills at Leaving Certificate or above to reskill and prepare for occupations in new and different sectors of the economy,” she explained.
She emphasised the need to do more to improve the uptake of maths and science education. “The reputation of Irish education abroad is a key pull-factor for attracting foreign direct investment into Ireland. That was made clear to me during my many meetings, overseas and at home, with company executives as Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. During some of those meetings, however, one concern that did arise was that we needed to do more to strengthen and deepen our pool of maths and science graduates.”
She said that Project Maths is an initiative that she supports. “I know that it has already begun in 24 project schools and mainstream implementation is commencing in all schools this September. Its impact is something I am particularly keen to gauge. The project should contribute significantly to enhancing interest in maths across our second-level system. The €5m also being invested in professional development for maths teachers this year, in a rolling programme that will continue to at least 2013, is another major piece of the solution,” she added.
The minister also touched on the issue of continuous professional development by all teachers. “It is also a key dimension of ensuring quality outcomes for the student population in our schools. No matter how we strengthen and improve pre-service training and accreditation, it will not be sufficient to sustain teachers and enable them meet the ongoing and changing challenges of the classroom. While many individual teachers do take responsibility for their own professional development, this must become the norm among the teaching profession as it is among other professions.”
In terms of industrial relations, she acknowledged the difficult period delegates are going through. “No Government would want to take the measures we have had to take if they could be avoided. In this context, the Government believes that the agreement framed following negotiations over the course of recent weeks with the public service unions represents a reasonable basis to move forward, That said, I appreciate that your members must make their own decision in this matter through your own democratic processes. I only ask that you consider the agreement and the wider context carefully in finalising your decision.”
In conclusion, she urged delegates to put the learner at the centre of every setting. “What we do is not about the needs of a Tánaiste, a minister, a department or about the needs of teachers. The needs of those we serve must be central to and inform our actions. History will pass judgement on the efficacy of the Government’s responses to the fiscal challenges and the banking crisis. But history will also judge all of us tasked with delivering public services in a time of adversity and challenge,” the minister concluded.

Ryan hits out at public service cut-backs

THE outgoing president of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland, Clare man Don Ryan, held no punches in his response to cut-backs in the public service, which are having a negative impact on the education system.
In his reply to the Minister for Education, he first pointed to the record of Minister Coughlan’s predecessor, Batt O’Keeffe. “During his term of office and in the name of so-called patriotism, funding was withdrawn from disadvantaged schools, grants for alternative programmes were slashed, capitation funding for Traveller children was slashed, book grants were abolished, school transport charges were increased and language support was reduced.”
He continued, “The main party of Government, of which you are a member, agreed for politically expedient reasons to restore some funding to redress some of these shameful cutbacks. A school year has almost passed since commitments were made in the revised programme for Government to a full restoration of grants. Where is the funding you committed to last October? Our schools have not received a single cent of this vital funding. Neither has there been any restoration of language support teachers to schools where more than 50% of pupils do not speak English as a first language. Attend to this, Tánaiste, immediately.”
He pointed out that in the last 18 months, over 1,000 teachers were lost from second-level schools, which has resulted in fewer programme options and loss of subjects, particularly the sciences.
“All the rhetoric about the smart economy sounds stupid when this is allowed to continue. The allocation of 500 jobs between primary and post-primary over three years is totally inadequate. You cannot cut your way out of recession, Minister. Our schools and colleges are understaffed and education is severely damaged,” the president added.
He pleaded with the Tánaiste to work with teacher unions, not against them. He commented also that they had already prioritised to the minister the lifting of the moratorium on the filling of promotional posts.
“These posts are the very backbone on which our schools and colleges operate. The moratorium has also dismantled adult education services; adult education officers, adult literacy organisers, adult education directors and VTOS co-ordinators are not being replaced. Such provision is critical and it is pitiful that the Government has resorted to such insane measures. You have announced a token alleviation of the moratorium but in many cases, the roof has already caved in. You are now trying to prop it up with matchsticks,” he said.
Mr Ryan also highlighted teachers’ concerns about special education needs provision and supports for dealing with pupil disruption. “Fee-charging schools take on little or none of this responsibility, yet you give tens of millions of euro to an already-privileged but exclusionary school system. Give the resources to schools which meet their responsibilities to society,” he added.
He urged the minister to create permanent teaching jobs for teachers and lecturers, as currently only 68.2% of teachers are permanent.
Mr Ryan spoke about the proposed introduction of a new grade or title for qualified teachers and lecturers, as a “device to underpay TUI members”.
“There is no grade of tutor in the teaching profession. This is not a tutors’ conference. It is a teachers’ and lecturers’ conference,” he commented.
He welcomed the fact that the training element of FÁS will come under the Minister for Education and Skill’s remit. “The transfer of the training portfolio to you will allow resources to flow into the further and institutes of technology sectors. It will also allow for the removal of the obstacles that impede the development of both sectors, such as the cap on numbers in further education colleges. However, along with removing the cap on numbers, it is essential that further education is recognised as a discrete sector within your department and that the resources agreed in July 2008 are provided,” he added.
He told the minister why the delegates at the annual congress are seething with anger. “Their pay has been cut on two occasions. Their pensions are threatened. The education service in which they work has been decimated. And you are now telling us that worse could come. If your Government thinks we are going to continue to take it, you are badly mistaken. All of this is happening to rectify the mismanagement of this country by your Government. This is an ignominious time in the history of this country, a time when the life chances of citizens, their children and grandchildren have been sacrificed to save the necks of those who have committed treason against this country. This treacherous behaviour has been going on for decades in this country, mostly under the watch of a political party of which you are now the deputy leader,” he said.
He said that on Tuesday, the congress resoundingly rejected the proposed public sector agreement. “It is a massive con job. It is another attempt to rescue the country on the backs of the education system, its teachers, and public sector workers generally. When we chose teaching as a career – many decades ago in the case of some of us – it was not about looking after number one, unlike the unscrupulous characters that our Government has given refuge to. No other civilised country would tolerate this. Is it any wonder, Tánaiste, that we are seething with anger?”
Mr Ryan added that they are not afraid of reform and have always embraced reform and will continue to do so. “We have developed and pioneered programmes in every sector of education in which we are involved. What we need, Minister, is a fundamental transformation of Irish society to get to the point where honesty and decency prevail; where addressing inequalities in society is the guiding principle of those who run this country. Teachers and lectures want to be part of this transformation and a transformation of the education system to eliminate cronyism and elitism so that each individual learner and citizen has an equal chance. But we reject outright any attempt to worsen our daily work, dressed up as transformation,” the president said.